Interact Club Shares The Easter Love

In the days leading up to this year’s Easter weekend, the members of Union High School’s Interact Club launched a special appeal for Easter egg donations, with the hopes of providing the little learners of the Union Preparatory School and Union Pre-School each with a chocolaty surprise before Easter.
The Interact Club’s members were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of the school’s learners and their parents, with a huge number of eggs being donated.
Not only could the Interact Club supply Easter eggs to all the learners in the pre and prep school, but they could also give eggs to the learners at the high school, deliver to Vuyani Safe Haven and dole out some to numerous local farm workers.
Union High School extends its thanks to everyone who supported this project! We also thank each and every member of the Interact Club for reaching out to the little Unionites in the pre and prep school.
โžค Congratulations to the Grade 10P class on collecting the most eggs!

Goodbye, Mrs Botes

Today, Wednesday, 31 March, marks the end of Mrs Danelle Botes’ time here at Union.
Mrs Botes, who has been teaching Geography at the school for just over two years, has decided to put her red pen down for a while in order to be able to spend some more time with her two young children.
Since being appointed at the start of 2019, Mrs Botes has been an amazing asset to the school. She is passionate about whatever she does and her friendly disposition and encouraging attitude will be sorely missed by the learners and her fellow teachers.
The school would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all her hard work and wish her everything of the best for her future.
Seen here is Mrs Botes with some of her Grade 12 learners. To say that they will miss her dearly is an understatement!

Nurturing Emotional Intelligence

“๐˜๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ด ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ข ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜บ.” – ๐—š๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ
On Thursday, 25 March, the educators of the Union High School, Union Preparatory School and the Union Pre-School, spent their afternoon in the company of Mr Gavin Keller, Executive Director of Keller Education, who presented an engaging, inspirational and motivational session to the staff on the nurturing of emotional intelligence in learners.
This session was part of the Union Schoolsโ€™ ongoing professional development partnership with Keller Education.

Good Luck Mr August!

Union High School bids a sad farewell to our Head of Hockey, Mr Alvin August this week.

Mr August has been a valued member of the Union family for the past three years and will be greatly missed by the learners and staff.

We wish him and his family all the best as they make a new home for themselves in Stellenbosch.

UHS 1st XI vs BB Invitational

Union’s 1st team cricket boys travelled to the Asante Sana Private Game Reserve on Friday, 12 March, to take on the Brian Bands Invitational XI.
Brian Bands won the toss and elected to bat first.
The Union boys bowled with good control in windy conditions and managed to create chances very early on, but failed to capitalise by dropping a few catches.
This did not dampen the boysโ€™ spirit, however, and they kept at it, restricting Brian Bands to 147 all out in 35 overs. Unionโ€™s best bowlers were Josh Calitz (4 for 17 in 5 overs) and Laythan Carelse (2 for 8 in 3 overs).
The Union team then went in to bat, chasing down the total of 147. The top order laid a solid foundation with some valuable partnerships upfront, combatting some excellent bowling from the Brian Bands cricketers.
In the end, Union managed to successfully cross the line, winning by 4 wickets, with 5 overs to spare.
Unionโ€™s best batsmen were Sisipho Arnols (32), Rogan Odendaal (31), Joshua Horne (22), Josh Calitz (18*) and MJ Newton (14*).

Eco Club Is Back In Action

“๐˜ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฉ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ.” – ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฎ ๐—š๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ต๐—ถ
Eco Club gives all our learners who are interested in the environment a chance to meet, learn, discuss and expand their knowledge of environmental issues.
During their meeting on Wednesday afternoon, 17 March,, it was all about dogs as they kicked off a three-part series of hands-on lessons about pets and how to care for them.
This series encourages children to think about respect for pets and what they bring to the lives of human beings. They will understand that by providing animals with basic needs and treating animals with kindness and respect, they are demonstrating responsible pet care, environmental stewardship and acting as responsible citizens of the community.

Thank You

๐—” ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฆ๐—š๐—•

As we await the results of our 2021 School Governing Body (SGB)ย elections – which were successfully held today, Friday, 19 March – Union High School would like to extend a vote of thanks to our outgoing SGB parent members for their consistent involvement and loyal service, having made a significant difference to our 102-year-old school during their tenure.

As a well-balanced unit, they have complemented one another in professional skills brought to the table, showing collective mindfulness and prudence towards the needs of the Union school community, in so doing ensuring that many significant achievements were realised during their watch.

Seen here is Unionโ€™s SGB Deputy Chair Mr Kelvin Kayster, presenting the outgoing SGB Chairman, Mr David Langmead, with a token of the schoolโ€™s appreciation. The responsibility of being the SGBโ€™s Chairman is onerous and the tasks daunting. Mr David Langmead, however, performed his duties with dedication and tenacity these past three years and for that we thank him sincerely.

As a school community, we are truly indebted to ALL the members of the Governing Body for the time, commitment, professionalism, dedication and effort put into the school and thank them all for their committed support in ensuring the continued success of the Union High School.

Media Centre Reopens

As of today, Tuesday, 16 March, Union High School’s media centre is once again open to learners every afternoon after school (Monday – Thursday) between 14:00 and 15:00.

Learners are invited to make use of this facility’s modern computer equipment, as well as free Internet services, for research or as a safe, supervised space for quiet reading and homework while waiting for their afternoon sport lessons to commence.

Montego Cares

Union High School was delighted to receive a donation of quality multifunctional A4 office paper from the ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ผ ๐—–๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€ initiative earlier today, Friday, 12 March.
Paper is the lifeblood of any school as thousands of sheets are used to educate learners by way of printing and photocopying the necessary notes, exam papers and the like.
Seen here is Union High School receptionist, Ms Elsebe Moos, with the donated paper.
Union extends a grateful word of thanks, not only for the paper donated to our school, but for that distributed to all the other schools in Graaff-Reinet, many of which are suffering from extreme budget constraints.
Donations such as these contribute immensely to every schoolโ€™s pursuit of academic excellence.

Rockschool Piano Examinations

Union learners Melissa Naude and Sasha Cochrane were officially presented with their Rockschool certificates of achievement today, for their stellar performances during their respective piano examinations at the end of last year.
Both pianists obtained distinctions, with Sasha Cochrane earning 90% for her Rockschool Grade 3 practical piano exam and Melissa Naude earning 93,75% for her practical Rockschool Debut Piano exam.
See the previous Facebook posts announcing their respective achievements here: